Shawn Kemp Jr. joins Huskies as final scholarship player this season

Lorenzo Romar found a sixth scholarship player for this year’s class. The name is rather familiar.

Shawn Kemp Jr., the son of former Seattle Sonics legend Shawn Kemp, signed a financial aid agreement with the Washington Huskies on Thursday and joined the rest of the incoming freshman class for the beginning of the summer L.E.A.P. program.

Kemp, a 6-foot-9 forward, will be assigned the team’s 13th and final scholarship.

“We’re happy to have Shawn Kemp Jr. in our program,” Romar said in a statement. “He gives us additional size and athleticism up front.”

Kemp originally committed to Alabama in 2008, but didn’t qualify academically and wound up attending prep school at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va. After a year there, he signed with Auburn in 2009, but again failed to qualify and spent the next year out of basketball. Prior to prep school, Kemp attended Cherokee High School in Canton, Ga., where he averaged 12 points and eight rebounds as a junior.

There were rumblings of this happening a while back, though there was likely concern over whether Kemp would make it into school. Obviously, he’s on Montlake and enrolled in classes now, so that’s no longer an issue.

So all of a sudden, looks as if the Huskies are going to have an interesting battle for playing time in the frontcourt this season. Kemp joins senior Darnell Gant, junior Aziz N’Diaye, incoming freshmen Martin Breunig and Jernard Jarreau and redshirt freshman Desmond Simmons as UW’s post players. Lots of young, raw players there.